Page 70 of Tyrant (The Villetti Chronicles)

The man nearest to him spluttered.

“What, why?”

Derek turned on him.

“I fuckin’ said so. Get out.”

The men scattered like the wind with the irritation in Derek’s voice, leaving me all alone with a man I was beginning to despise more and more by the minute. He took a step closer to me. I didn’t shrink back in my chair, instead, I met his eyes head-on.

“Where have you been?”

“As if I’m going to tell you that.”

He shrugged out of his overcoat and threw it on a table. Then he took off his suit jacket, letting it join his coat, leaving him in a shirt and a waistcoat. Unbuttoning his cuffs, he rolled up his sleeves. He tucked his thumb into the pocket of his waistcoat before approaching me. I flinched when he reached out with his free hand and brushed a finger along my jaw.

“Quite the mouth on you, girl. It would be a pity to mar such a pretty face now, wouldn’t it?”

He dropped his hand, shoving it in his pocket and drawing out a small pocketknife. He flicked open the blade and ran his finger down it.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

He smiled at me.

“Wouldn’t I?” He let the hand with the blade in it fall to his side. “It would serve your father right. Out here trying to muscle in on my fuckin’ turf.”

“He wants nothing to do with you or Peckham.”

Derek eyed me, running his yellowing teeth over his bottom lip. He kept a hold of his knife while drawing out a cigarette packet. He extracted one and lit it. Taking a drag from it, he blew out the smoke in my face. I coughed, hating the smell of it. I didn’t mind Zayn’s cigarillos, but this made me queasy.

My heart ached at the thought of Zayn. What I wouldn’t do to sit in his lap while he smoked and breathe in the scent of him right now.

“Oh, I know. That’s just what I’m telling my boys, but then you had to go make a fuckin’ mess of it all. Now he’s out here, threatening my boys, demanding to know where his whore of a daughter is.” He waved his cigarette at me. “As if I fuckin’ knew after Justin disappeared. He was supposed to bring you to me. That was the fuckin’ deal.”

I wanted to spit in his face. Calling me a whore. How original.

“If I’m such a whore, why do you even want me? You going to tell me my pussy is used and you’re doing me a favour by wanting to fuck me?” I did spit at him then. “As if I would ever want your weak dick anywhere near me. I’d be doing you a favour, not the other way around.”

Probably wasn’t sensible of me to antagonise Derek. In fact, it would only get me in trouble. My reckless streak was out in force. I couldn’t shove her back in her box, nor did I want to.

Derek reacted fast, his hand whipping out and pressing the tip of his knife at the corner of my mouth. He shoved his cigarette in his mouth and glared at me.

“No one is going to want you after I deface this mouth of yours. I’ll cut you up, you little bitch, then the only man who will pay you any attention is me. Don’t need you looking pretty, and everyone will know who you belong to. Me. I’ll fuck you up so bad, you won’t know your own name any longer. All you’ll be is a whore who takes my dick.”

The sinister look on his face almost made me keep my mouth shut, but I’d been intimidated enough in my life by men like him wanting things I wasn’t willing to give.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“No? And why the fuck not? I’m not scared of Bennett.”

“He’s not the one you need to be afraid of.”

Derek’s eyes narrowed.

“Who then, bitch? I don’t see anyone coming to your fuckin’ rescue.”

There was no way for anyone to find me as far as I knew, but I wasn’t going to let Derek think he would get away with this. Surely Remi and Enzo would have told Zayn I’d been taken by now. Would he stop at nothing to find me? He kept telling me I belonged to him, and he’d protect me. I had to trust in that. I had to… if I didn’t, I would have no hope at all.

When I said nothing, Derek laughed at me, pulling his blade away from my face.

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